From the Road Report Archive

January 22, 2017: The Devens, MA Monthly Show

After our marathon two week FUN Show to New York International Numismatic Convention Metroplex (in which the urban sprawl between the two shows merged into one), readers may have assumed that CRO would be kicking back and taking it easy this weekend.

And if they did, they'd have been wrong. WRONG. W---R---O---N---G.

Instead, we were up at 5:30 AM on Sunday prepping for the newly located, formerly Westford, MA Show now in a shiny new venue in Devens, MA (which your author had never heard of despite living here since 1998!).

And I have to say I was favorably impressed with the place, and with the job show organizer Ernie Bott had done getting it all set up. Meaning that all us dealers had to do was show up, display our wares and conduct as much local flavored numismatic business as possible.

Which turned out to be more than we might have exected, as we bought a bunch of coins from multiple different dealers and collectors in the room, considered a few others, passed on some that didn't quite fit the program, made one trade, sold 2 coins and, as is the case at nearly every show we attend, large or small, saw at least one thing we have never, ever encountered before (which we will not mention, yet, since we are still hoping to buy it).

Leaving at about 2 PM to get home in time for some very serious paperwork sorting as we attempt to continue to unbury ourselves from that onslaught of early January and roll into next week with a clean slate.

Road Report Archive

Prologue:
Good morning numismatist circa 2019 and welcome to this our first RR of your new year.
And this will be a stage-setter for what we expect to be another excellent event here in FLA, beginning with an immense amount of lot viewing and wholesale action before the actual show kicks off with dealer set-up on Wednesday and auction sessions galore...

Prologue+:
As is our usual M.O., Team CRO actually zipped down to Baltimore on Tuesday of this week, stormed into the inner harbor before breakfast, dumped our stuff at the hotel, headed straight to the PCGS pre-show room at the Sheraton, submitted a bunch of show grading and then like lightning proceeded to the Bowers lot viewing room where we camped out for nearly 2 full days poring through the thick, desirable-coin filled catalogs of U...

Team CRO was up and out early on Sunday for our local show, arriving precisely at 7:30 AM.
Unfortunately, we realized at 7:27 while pulling into the parking lot that we forgot our lamps and extension cords (continuing our proud tradition at this event where we forget something imporant and then have to scramble like mad to find a solution when we'd rather be focused on buying and selling coins)...

Prologue:
With our usual off-the-charts level of enthusiasm, Team CRO has spent the last several days organizing, collating, stapling, filing, sorting, arranging, stacking, pricing and, of course, packing for what we expect to be an utterly epic ANA show held in what is always a great venue for numismatic activity...

Prologue:
Phew - that was a close one. We were just about to head down to Baltimore on Tuesday morning when, in a cursory last minute check of our hotel reservation, realized we didn't actually have a room for that night, AND were booked at the wrong hotel...

June 13th: Day 1
Team CRO arrived at the Long Beach Convention Center bright and early on Wednesday AM, headed straight to the PCGS submission room at the end of the hall, handed in a pile of pent up grading and then moved on to our second stop at the Heritage lot viewing room...

Prologue:
After a terribly relaxing 8-day break between shows during which we did an Early Bird, sold a bunch of cool coins, bought some amazing things and screamed at American Airlines for in excess of 4 hours, it's time to once again hit the road, this time bound for the great city of New Orleans (our first visit since October of 2013 when your author flew down for the day to deliver a Willow Tree Shilling and have lunch in the French Quarter)...

Prologue
Almost unbelievably, we are in another airport and already typing another edition of the RR, this our EAC primer in which we set the scene about what we expect to encounter here:
The chance to meet up with many numismatic friends, some of whom we have not seen in a year (though admittedly there will also be people we saw as recently as last Saturday)...

Prologue:
Greetings numismatist and welcome to the first of what will be pretty much 3 straight weeks of Road Reports as Team CRO embarks on a 3-consecutive show Midwestern odyssey unparalleled in our history...

Having enjoyed a relaxing flight from LB, and then moving effortlessly from the airport to Devens in a freezing rain, Team CRO was operating at peak efficiency, with near-military precision and without a hitch...

You know what really says "I looooove numismatics"?
Well, we're glad you asked, because we happen to know that the answer is you leap out of bed at 5:30 AM on a Sunday, jump in the car and head out to Devens, MA for the first monthly event of 2018, and our 3rd show this January...

January 9th: Day 1
Well, Tuesday morning certainly wasn’t dull, as we met what would turn out to be the most aggressive Uber driver I’ve ever encountered and not so much drove as careened to the airport leaving behind us a wake of rude gestures and beeping horns from other motorists...

Prologue
Good morning New Year's revelers, early risers, those who scour the web for new numismatic content and any of the many, many people who have stumbled upon this site while doing a Google search for ‘Selling State Quarters in Massachusetts’ and welcome to this our first RR of 2018...

As Team CRO arrived at the show around 8:15 on Sunday, we were pleasantly surprised to find an already bustling bourse floor with many dealers engaged in commerce, others in the late stages of setting up and a bunch of early-arriving collectors milling about...

Prologue:
All of a sudden we're back in Baltimore, again, for the last of our three (3) annual numismatic visits, this typically the biggest and best of them and including the annual meeting of the Colonial Coin Collectors Club (C4)...

As I headed out early Sunday for our local show I have to admit my expectations were modest for several reasons:
The weather here is amazing, and I figured a lot of people would opt for some outdoor activity or other before the weather turns cold and we're all buried under 6 or 7 feet of snow...

Prologue:
Greetings numismatist and welcome to this the first RR of the fall coin season, a calendar transition we will be celebrating by boarding an airplane and taking a quick 5 hour flight to SoCal for the LB Expo...

Prologue:
Team CRO Readiness Status: Very
Our bags are packed, our inventory is organized, our checkbook has been fortified and we are totally and completely ready to numismatically storm the Colorado Convention Center (in a good way) and then buy, sell, trade and grade as many cool coins as possible over the next week, stopping only to schmooze, to eat lunch and then to blog about each and every single thing that happens at this show right here in this space...

I’d like to begin today by giving kudos to my hard-working New England coin dealer brethren, many of whom worked a full day at the Whitman Coin Expo in Baltimore on Saturday, got home late at night and then were up and out first thing Sunday morning to drive – in some cases as long as 3 hours – to be here in Devens for our local monthly show...

Prologue:
Aaaaaaaaand we're off, to Baltimore of course, for what we expect to be a fun-filled 4 days in the Inner Harbor during which we will be looking to do our usual buying, selling, trading, grading and schmoozing from our command center at table #442...

Prologue:
Has it really been since September of 2013 that we've been to a coin show in the City of Brotherly Love? Apparently yes, at least according to our Road Report Archives which are, in our opinion, the best online record of such things...

February 15th: Day 1
After shoveling snow off my roof in New England on Monday and Tuesday of this week (sorry – no photos), I was perhaps even more ready than the average coin dealer to head to warm and sunny southern California for the first of three annual Long Beach shows...

After our marathon two week FUN Show to New York International Numismatic Convention Metroplex (in which the urban sprawl between the two shows merged into one), readers may have assumed that CRO would be kicking back and taking it easy this weekend...

Prologue:
I can't believe it either.
Just 24 hours after getting home on our much delayed flight from Fort Lauderdale, we've barely had enough time to unpack, repack and head out to the door to what we expect will be an excellent event at the Waldorf Astoria, with a focus on the ~50% of the CRO inventory that does not include U...

Prologue:
"Hey, I didn't know you guys did the Houston Show!" is a comment we've heard a lot recently, to which we always respond with a resounding Yes! and then direct people to the EVENTS tab on our home page menu bar where you can see every show and (auction!) we'll be attending over the next many months...

November 1st: Day 1
After a prolonged major show hiatus (since we last attended an XL one in earnest at the ANA in August), we are delighted to be back in the numismatic saddle once again and, of course, blogging like crazy...

It was nice to be back on the circuit today at our monthly event in nearby Westford, MA.
So I got there bright and early at 7 AM, set up the table, artfully arranged a new and different-every-time subset of our inventory and began a solid 7 hours of shopping, schmoozing, selling and, on this day, trading in the form of one of our big colonials for several medium-sized ones...

If this was the 4th Sunday of the month it must have been time once again for the Westford, MA Show, which explained why your author was up extreeeemely early and out the door on a Sunday morning for cryin' out loud...

While (most of) the rest of the numismatic world was sleeping in, or possibly out for pancakes, your author and some of his New England coin dealing brethren were up early and off to suburban Westford, Massachusetts for the regular ‘4th Sunday of Every Month’ show...

Prologue
After months of anticipation, weeks of preparation, days of organization and hours of pack-ification, Team CRO is finally rocketing toward Anaheim, CA for the 2016 ANA World’s Fair of Money...

Prologue:
And now for something completely different.
Actually, that's true on two levels:
There is, for the first time ever (or at least for the first time in recent memory) no "official" auction at this show, allowing us to eschew our usual catalog schlepping, lot viewing, bid planning and auction attending here in Baltimore and to focus instead on buying and selling coins on the actual bourse floor...

Prologue:
After just a quick 6 hour and 20 minute flight (seriously - I think I did it faster in an old DC-6 once) your author arrived in balmy SoCal for what figures to be an interesting LB Expo replete with buying and selling ops on the bourse floor, and some cool tokens and medals in the HA auction...

April 14th: Day 1
I woke up on Thursday numismatically disoriented (as sometimes happens on these trips), first thinking I was home, then in Baltimore, and finally in my college dorm room before I snapped out of it and remembered that, no, we are at the glorious CICF show in Chicagoland, and it’s time to get going...

Prologue:
After an extreeeeemely busy couple of weeks in the CRO offices (which included a brief buying excursion at the Manchester, NH show) we are about to embark on what might be the the most jam-packed April in CRO history, starting in Baltimore and then continuing on to Charlotte for the EAC show, then Chicago for CICF, then home, then in Chicago AGAIN for CSNS...

Prologue:
Good morning website visitor and welcome to this our first installment of the ANA RR written here at my airport gate while a guy seated across the aisle not 6 feet from me is devouring an Egg McMuffin like a scene from the water hole on Wild Kingdom...

January 5th: Day 1
Good morning and welcome to this our first full-blown RR of the year, delivered to you in living color from scenic but surprisingly loud (what is that constant noise that sounds like an industrial dryer in the hotel?) Tampa, Florida, and not the usual Orlando location for this show...

Normally we wouldn't write a Road Report for a mere auction viewing trip, but we're going to make an exception in this case for two reasons:
To highlight the challenge this overlapping NY International vs FUN Show schedule presents for dealers like us, and
To get full credit for the amount of travel hardship we're willing to endure to acquire cool coins for the site...

Prologue
Good morning coin enthusiast, and welcome to this the first Houston Show RR we've written since 2007 (that being the last time we attended this non-regularly scheduled CRO event through the years)...

Prologue:
I have to say we are as enthusiastic as ever about this event, partly because it's always a great show in this venue, partly because this fall installment includes the Colonial Coin Collectors Club Convention and partly because we have not attended a major show since Long Beach in mid-September and are thus champing at the bit for some major coin activity...

Prologue:
Hard to believe it's been a month since our last event, but a quick perusal of the calendar (remove it from the wall, flip to August, turn the page to September) and indeed that is the case...

Prologue
Well, it's here, the year's largest and best attended coin show, the one that always seems to have the coolest displays, largest number of auctions, most interesting stuff for sale and biggest variety of U...

Prologue:
Welcome coin blog enthusiast to this pre-show, palate teasing, amuse-bouche edition of the RR designed to set the stage for the summer edition of the Baltimore Expo which we hope will be scorching...

Prologue:
Rest easy and be calm CRO website visitor, we are back from our extended, non-work-related tour of Italy (during which your author ate 63 arancini and at least 111 caprese salads) and ready to dive back onto the U...

Prologue:
Aah yes, the CICIF show, CRO's once annual opportunity to formally and completely devote ourselves to the 'Dark Side' (as in world coins, you know, the ones made in or circulated in places other than the good ol' US of A)...

Prologue
Words are perhaps inadequate to express your author's enthusiasm for the upcoming Baltimore Expo (the first of three to be held during the year), but as this is a written blog I am going to try real hard anyway:
Yes, we are reeeeeaaaaaally looking forward to this one because business is typically fan-tastic here, with a plethora of dealers, a plethora-and-a-half of enthusiastic collectors and the best mix of colonial, U...

Prologue:
I'm not a meterologist, but I have concluded after carefully analyzing a decades worth of data that the absolute best way to predict a blizzard in New England is to look at the schedule and check the dates of the year's first Long Beach Expo...

Prologue:
Ladies and Gentleman: Welcome to your 2015 Numismatic Year!
And what better way to kick-off the new year than to attend the FUN Show in Orlando, where the weather is warm (at least so far), the wholesale activity has already been humming, the show grading has been submitted and the auction lots have been thoroughly viewed and vetted (and let me tell you, that was no mean feat considering that there are about 7,000 of them here to look at, many are complicated and time consuming and we’ve had to spend more time than usual re-grading, looking for hidden problems and figuring out what we like enough to actually bid on)...

Prologue
With the greatest of ease and not so much as one travel hiccup, misstep, misshap, lost bag, delay, detainment or quarantine, we have arrived in Baltimore once again for what we exect to be a thoroughly delightful Expo experience...

September 3rd: Day 1
Having arrived in Long Beach the previous evening and still operating on east coast time, I woke up crisply at 3:13 AM on Wednesday, tried to go back to bed, mostly failed, and eventually got up for good at 5ish...

August 4th: Day 1
After months of anticipation, weeks of preparation, and hours of coin price tag sticker-ification (literally – I think we finished pricing everything at 2 o’clock Monday morning), we were 103% ready for the start of the ANA World’s Fair of Money 2014...

June 25th: Day 1
Landing in Baltimore bright and early on Wednesday morning, I hurriedly grabbed my bag and jumped into a cab which I had no way of knowing would be driven by one of those guys who is either flooring it or jamming on the brakes continuously for the entire ride...

Prologue:
Greetings Road Report reader and welcome to this our first installment of the 2014 CSNS report, a very fine event held in a convenient semi-suburban location very close to the last show we attended not even two frickin' weeks ago...

Prologue:
We are delighted to be attending the Chicago International Coin Fair this week, a world coin only (or at least ‘mostly’) event held in familiar Rosemont, Illinois right on the same street as the ANA show in August...

Prologue:
Good morning coin collector, coin dealer, industry professional or random person that has accidentally stumbled upon this site and welcome to this the first installment of our Atlanta RR, this penned here in New England before we have even gotten on the darn plane...

Prologue:
After a ~5 week hiatus since the Long Beach show we are primed and ready for the always excellent Baltimore show, as evidenced by the fact that we will be down here at the crack of dawn on Tuesday before most of the rest of the numismatic world has shown up...

Prologue:
Having thoroughly recovered from the Philadelphia show, I leaped out of bed at 3:30 AM on Tuesday, threw together enough clothes for another 5 days on the road and then bolted out the door for my ~6 hour flight to southern California...

Prologue:
Important travel update: I was informed today at the airport security screening that I could leave my shoes on, which either means that they think I’m a senior citizen (possible), or the rules have changed without anyone posting about it on Twitter (unlikely)...

August 12th: Day 1
Greetings Road Report reader, and welcome to this the first installment of the ANA World’s Fair of Money RR Extravaganza (which will not include a detailed description of the Official ANA Pre-Show, since I did not set up at that...

Prologue:
Let’s compare this summer installment of the Whitman Baltimore Expo to the spring and fall versions of this event:
Size: This one is a smaller, more intimate affair, with fewer dealers and tables (though I expect there will be more than enough coins on display to satisfy even the most voracious of numismatic appetites)...

Prologue:
Not that I am not excited to attend shows in other venues (because really I am), but this one is special, taking us to fabulous New Orleans, LA for coin-filled days and evenings offering enough entertainment options to satisfy even the most adventurous numismatist...

April 24th: Day 1
As CRO embarks on three (3) shows over the next three (3) weeks, you are reading the very first of what will be a veritable ton of Road Report entries (if you print them all out on heavy 14pt stock, which is of course not necessary since you can always find them here on this site arranged chronologically)...

March 12th: Prologue
After a several week hiatus between shows, I was psyched to wake up at 3 AM on Tuesday, thrilled to drive to the unbelievably crowded airport, excited to get on the plane and zip down to Baltimore, jazzed to scoop up my luggage at baggage claim, delighted to hop in a filthy cab and very, very happy to stride through a cold rain into the hotel lobby here in the Inner Harbor at about 8...

Prologue:
Good morning people and welcome to this the first RR of 2013, written before I have actually gone anywhere (and even before I have started packing, a reflection of the fact that your author has not had the opportnity to write one of these since November and simply could not wait any longer)...

November 13th: Prologue
No one likes a good coin show more than your author, but I have to say I am looking at this one with perhaps just a little trepidation only because I fully expect to be completely, totally and thoroughly exausted (even more so than usual at one of these events) by the end of it...

November 9th: Day 1
Although I kept thinking it was Thursday, and I did get lost on my way to the show, I did eventually find my way to something called the “Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel” in unfamiliar Marlborough, Massachusetts, walked in the door, and stood in the line to collect my show credentials...

Hello and welcome to this one day, quick hitting, extra special, bonus edition of the Road Report (an RR Mini, if you will) in which we 1) Detail today's journey to the Stack's-Bowers offices in NY and 2) Offer some admittedly not-that-keen insight into a day in the life of a coin dealer...

September 4th: Prologue
I am pleased to report that this, the first installment of the Long Beach Road Report, is being written from the comfort of my flight to California, in a window seat that will not recline, strategically surrounded by young children who were all screaming earlier, but have since stopped...

August 3rd: Prologue
After months of anticipation, weeks of preparation, hours of sorting inventory and 7 minutes of shoving clothes indiscriminately into a suitcase, I officially declare myself prepared and ready for the 2012 World’s Fair of Money...

I am delighted to provide this Bonus RR about my day-trip to Philadelphia made exclusively to view Heritage auction lots, a previously unplanned, hastily arranged visit made necessary by the challenges of this year’s cumbersome ANA show and auction schedule...

Prologue:
After a quick 5 and a half hour flight from New England on an airplane comfortably cooled to 43 degrees in the cabin, I have arrived in well-lit Las Vegas in anticipation of another entertaining and productive PCGS Members Only Show...

Prologue:
Good morning coin enthusiast!
We are pleased to present this the first of five (5) reports from the Baltimore Show (though this one is being written from the airport in New England where your author is sitting at 4:48 AM waiting for one of the 11 restaurants in this Terminal to open and sell him a coffee)...

May 7-8: Pre-ANA Seminar
Good morning people:
While our readers may have come here expecting to see exciting news about our flights from New England, or possibly something about a lost bag, instead you are going to get some heavy-duty numismatic content as I describe the two-day ANA-sponsored seminar that I (DW) attended, along with a dozen other men and women, prior to the show...

May 2nd: Day 1
While it would have been nice to wake up Wednesday, have a leisurely breakfast and then calmly fly to Buffalo, it turned out to be one of those ridiculous mornings where nothing goes right, you can’t find your phone, and the incredibly important box of coins that was shipped to you and that you desperately need to take with you to EAC has not yet shown up in your PO Box when you go check at 7:30 AM...

Prologue
Good morning coin collector, coin dealer, industry professional or person(s) who have stumbled upon this website accidentally while attempting to do an internet search for “Coin Operated Laundry”, or “Do it yourself dog grooming"...

Prologue:
Good morning everyone -
And while it seems like ages since our last Road Report 3 days ago, we are again delighted to be back in the numismatic saddle and jetting off to yet another show, this one waaaaay across the country in sunny (I just checked the forecast) SoCal...

Just back from our annual pilgrimage to the Stack’s (now Stack’s-Bowers, of course) Americana Sale, we are pleased to present this quick-hitting, no-holds-barred, profusely illustrated auction recap Part I for your reading pleasure...

Prologue:
And then, suddenly, the 2012 FUN Show is upon us, requiring your author to re-assemble the CRO travel kit (the components of which always seems to get widely dispersed between shows), grab a flight to Orlando and then emerse ourselves in what we expect to be a high-quality, 6-day, numismatic experience in which we offer some cool, new, never-before-seen rarities (including a collection acquired just days ago), try to buy every interesting coin we see, and engage in some deluxe socializing at various local restaurants...

While most of the numismatic world was out Xmas shopping, or possibly trimming their trees, I attended the PCGS Members Only Show in Las Vegas show so that I could then make the following observations about it right here in this space:
The Palazzo Hotel venue is nothing short of spectacular, with palatial rooms, access to more shopping than most malls, more dining options than most cooking shows, one of the most comprehensive gyms I’ve ever seen in my life and, of course, night life that continues through daylight hours (though frankly it is very hard to tell which is which around here)...

Prologue:
Ah yes, after one major snow storm, some extended power outage, followed by some impressive Indian summer with temperatures reaching almost 70 degrees (during which your author may or may not have been seen wearing shorts around the office), we are prepped and ready for our first show in nearly 30 (thirty) days...

October 12th: Day 1
Optimistically, I headed down to the hotel lobby on Wednesday morning, walked briskly out the front door and stepped directly into a fine mist which would have been excellent for growing orchids, but which was unpleasant for the couple of block walk to the convention center...

Prologue
Since we just got back from Long Beach, and I have spent most of the time since then unpacking a suitcase whose handle was ripped clean off by an airline who shall remain nameless (Virgin America) and then immediately repacking a new one, you might think we'd be a little tired of this traveling thing...

Prologue:
Good morning coin collector, coin dealer, industry professional or someone who has just found us accidentally while doing a Google search for "Coin Operated Laundry in Rosemont, IL" but is now systematically reading each and every Road Report which has appeared on this site since 2005 -
And, in our humble opinion, this one figures to be as entertaining as any of them, since we anticipate no shortage of numismatic activity to write about...

June 14th: Day 1
For CRO, our Baltimore Show began at precisely 3 AM on Tuesday as your author leaped out of bed, began packing like a crazy person, jumped in a cab and made it to the airport well in advance of the first flight to BWI departing at just after 6...

Prologue
We'll be doing a truncated version of the LB show this time, which is to say that we will be here for every waking moment of it, but not here for the preceding Goldberg auction in Beverly Hills which has, by this time, already taken place (which explains why we did not write anything about that)...

Prologue
Just when we finally have (almost) all of those post Central States show loose ends tied up, it's time to hit the road again, this time for a looooong cross-country trek to scenic Portland, Oregon for the always entertaining EAC Convention...

Prologue
We are delighted to be back in Chicago, and when we say Chicago, we of course mean Rosemont, Illinois, famous for a small cluster of hotels, a large, utterly non-descript convention center and for being sort of near Chicago (but not so close that it does not take at least an hour to get there during rush hour)...

Prologue
Today will be what numismatists refer to as a “very long day”, as we wake up shockingly early, head to Baltimore, view coins at Stack’s-Bowers for hours and then roll straight into auction session #1 starting at 7 o’clock and ending 700-something lots later...

Prologue
Good mornng everyone:
I am pleased to say that I am all packed, completely ready and just about to zoom to the airport for an entire frickin' day of travel en route to the ANA Money Show in delightful Sacramento, CA...

February 2nd: Day 1
Truth to be told, I'm just happy I was able to make it here at all to write this exciting edition of the RR, since that was very much in doubt right up until my flight was de-iced for the 3rd time (never a good sign) leaving New England...

January 26th: Day 1
Good morning everyone,
Today we’ll be discussing our trip to Stack’s annual Americana Auction, in which a slew of early American coins, medals, exonumia and other assorted hoo-ha is auctioned off right in the heart of NYC, this year in a 2-day, 306 page, 2,812 lot affair...

January 9th: Day 7
We are pleased to be back home in New England in extremely cold, unpleasant conditions with a big pile of snow just outside the window, as opposed to the awful sunshine and palm trees we had to endure over the last week in Florida:
But now that we are here, it is of course time to recap the just-ended FUN show in earnest...

November 14th: Day 4
In past years on Sunday at this show we’d stroll in around 10 AM with a coffee and a donut, pack up all of our stuff, say our good-byes to all of the C4 guys we only see once a year, and then leave...

November 6th: Day 5
Whilst I planned an early start on Saturday, I was not thinking 2:19 AM, which is the precise time I was awakened by 4 or 5 drunken revelers who were either re-enacting the entire chariot race from Ben-Hur, or possibly practicing the long jump (not sure which) in the hallway just outside my hotel room...

October 30th: Day 4
As noted yesterday, one of the other dealers (Colonel Steve Ellsworth, who occupied the table directly next to us) told me that, surprisingly, at the last several shows he attended Saturday was the busiest day...

October 2nd, 2010 - Day 4:
Did you know that the coverage of the Ryder Cup golf started at 3 AM on Saturday, east coast time? It did, and I know that because I was awake and watching it after sleeping poorly and not for very long...

September 25th - Day 4:
While it would definitely make for a more exciting RR to say otherwise, the reality is that Saturday was not very eventful, as I just cleaned up a few loose ends, collected the last couple of checks and headed out at about midday...

In one of the highlights of this (or any) numismatic year, yesterday we attended the numismatic barbecue held annually at the lovely east coast home of a serious collector / good customer / gracious host...

August 14th - Day 10:
I am now comfortably back home after the best ANA we have attended in several years, which can be summarized as follows:
Boston (and the Hynes Convention Center specifically) was an excellent venue in almost every way with plenty of cool things to see and do nearby...

Day 4: Saturday
I think we could most accurately describe Saturday as a minor mad-house, with a lot of stuff going on all day, including some concentrated wheeling and dealing with many different people all over the room (some, but not all, of which was successful), picking up the last of our thoroughly appropriate grades received from PCGS, a very brief period of the lights going out in the convention center, some very successful check collecting (though we had our doubts for a few minutes there), extremely entertaining show and telling (including a stunning coin that we compelled a serious collector to sell us), a very soggy but still acceptable tuna sandwich for lunch, some last second consignments to the major auction houses on behalf of collectors and dealers alike, some typically hectic packing and shipping coins for photography and, finally, some late afternoon high-tailing it to the airport (from where I am now typing this installment of the Road Report)...

Day 8: The Exciting Conclusion
Actually, it was exciting, as we did a little more business on Saturday (including selling a fantastic PCGS 65+ Saint we had acquired at this show), picked up our last Heritage lot, then began the process of packing everything up like crazy, pausing only to reflect on the week that had been...

Day 5:
Saturday started off quite well, thank you, with the sun streaming into my hotel room window (after a violent rain storm the night before), and an email saying that our offer on a cool coin (which we had been trying to buy for weeks) had been accepted...

Day 3:
As noted here yesterday, I was thinking that Saturday might be another busy and active day on the bourse floor, with lots of customers, exciting new purchases and almost non-stop writing of long and detailed invoices...

Day 5:
Saturday began as they usually do at these shows, with us packing up and checking out of our hotel, then schlepping heavy bags across town to the convention center in what could probably best be characterized as an inconvenient pain in the neck...

Day 7:
It would be ideal to start this FUN show wrap-up by describing each of the 23 choice early copper coins we purchased from a little old man who walked into the show on Sunday, but since that didn’t happen we’ll begin instead by saying that (even though that one imaginary guy was not present) there were still quite a few people in the room...

November 14th: Day 6
Get away day is always a lot of fun, since it means we need to get up earlier than usual, pack, check out of the hotel and then haul our luggage to the convention center, usually in a rain storm...

October 11th: A Day of Rest
Sunday started off extremely nicely, as instead of hanging out in my hotel room in the morning (which unfortunately has been the custom for a few years now), I got myself down to the gym, worked out, had breakfast, packed up my stuff, checked out and then walked down to the show at about 9:30 to get ready for the 10 o’clock opening...

September 26th: And, in Conclusion
Let’s pick up Saturday’s action at about 10:02 AM, when, just as I arrived at out table, another dealer walked up and informed us that on Friday he had sold a couple of pretty big coins that we jointly owned...

September 12th: Leaving, On a Jet Plane
Here I am, back in the same airport terminal I visited just a few weeks ago after the ANA, and little has changed: The restaurant options are still lousy, and the security guy on the Segway is still roaring through the terminal at about 35 mph...

August 9th - Day 7:
I’m writing this in Gladstone’s, a loud restaurant and bar with extremely mediocre service in LAX’s Terminal 3, but still the best option available (just ahead of Burger King) for unwinding after 7 long, tiring days of ANA-ing...

Saturday:
Well, we were ready for something (anything) out of the ordinary on Saturday, but it turned out that wasn’t necessary, since it ended up being a lot like any weekend day at any show anywhere in the country...

The Exciting Conclusion:
It proved to be a typical Saturday at LB, which is to say that we spent our time packing up and standing in the astonishingly slow post office line, as opposed to buying and selling coins...

Day 4:
It may surprise you to learn that Saturday was the most crowded day of the show.
Though a weekend crowd at most shows is typically one with a high percentage of parents with young children and others out for a look-see, and that was the case here...

Prologue:
If this is Tuesday, we must be off to Ohio for the surprisingly long CSNS show.
Amazingly, we’ll have PNG dealer set-up late this afternoon, PNG day on Wednesday and then a regular coin show from Thursday through Saturday, which should give us more than enough time to buy and sell, schmooze, grade, view lots, attend the HA auction, bid on the good stuff and generally conduct as much coin business as possible before leaving town...

Day 2:
Can you imagine staying in a hotel in which every single person you see (other than the waitress and some guy – presumably a staff member – painting a hallway) is a coin collector or dealer? I can, because this is exactly what it's like here, including at breakfast this morning, when I entered the restaurant and recognized absolutely everybody at every table...

Postscript:
I did finally make it home, by the way, but not before my cab from the airport was pulled over by the police for speeding (a first for CRO) and a massive 45 minute argument errupted while your author sat in the backseat, quietly wondering what the appropriate etiquette is in this situation...

The Exciting Conclusion:
Truth be told, it wasn’t that exciting. Rather it was sort of a typical Saturday in LB, with mostly families and visitors looking around, and not too many serious transactions taking place (at our table or anywhere else that we could see)...

This just in - it was very, very cold in New York.
It was also not very crowded on the streets and sidewalks, which might have been because everyone was huddled in doorways trying to keep warm, or because the economy has taken its toll on people hanging out in NY shopping and going to Broadway shows...

Day 5:
I thought for a minute there our show was going to end on an extremely high note, as it appeared we were close to selling an expensive federal coin in the waning moments (during the packing up phase of our departure, right after our second lunch, but before Dave scaled the back table for the ceremonial removal of the CRO banner), but alas if it is going to be, it will be happening by phone later, and not here in person...

Day 4:
I found out what Dave bought at the auction after I left: a New Jersey copper, a Vermont copper, a USA button, a Fugio with a counterstamp (first we can recall seeing) and 2 unusual items destined for the "Wnuck Collection"...

Day 2:
Wednesday began with the gentle sounds of a guy throwing a large steel trash can against a dumpster at 5:24 AM directly outside my hotel window, which was a nice (though fairly typical) way to wake up in NY...

This will be a bonus Road Report, as I flew out to the St. Louis show for just a day and a half to try to buy coins on the floor, sell a few things, view some Scotsman and Heritage auction lots, see a few customers and gather sufficient anecdotes to write the following recap:
First, you will be pleased to know that my flight out was uneventful, and pleasant, in the sense that it was not as horrendous as most flights we take these days...

I am pleased to offer some bonus Road Reporting from my vacation side-trip to view the extensive colonial and early American coin holdings (including pieces on public display, as well as the cool stuff hidden away in the top-secret vaults) at quaint Colonial Williamsburg...

And in Conclusion:
It seems like about a month and a half ago we were sitting in the Stack's ANA pre-show auction buying some cool coins, and it feels like a few weeks ago when we sold our first coin on the floor on Monday during the ANA PNG-Day set-up, and just a few hours ago when we sold our last coin (a red unc...

The Post-Game Show:
Surely Saturday would be slow and uneventful, right?
That's what we expected, figuring that serious collectors who planned to come would have shown up on Thursday and Friday (for first shot!), leaving us to cool our collective numismatic heels on Saturday before packing up to leave at day's end...

Airport Report:
I always enjoy these last-day reports from the Baltimore show, as I typically write them in the airport terminal across from Wendy's (which is somewhat nostalgic, since in 1990 I loaned my car to my brother while I was studying abroad and he dumped a gigantic Wendy's Chocolate Frosty all over the interior, then attempted to clean it with Armor-All, which took the finish off the leather seats)...

Conclusion:
Actually, it was exciting, as the positive vibe continued here at CSNS. But let's start at the end:
Dave and I headed out at about 4:15 to catch a flight, but even as we were leaving it seemed like the room was still surprisingly full, with about 60% of the dealers still at their tables (though most were in serious 'packing-up' mode at that point trying to get everything organized before they booted us all out)...

The Exciting Conclusion:
Well, we weren't the only people on the bourse floor on Sunday, but about 75% of the dealers had vamoosed and the collector traffic could be best described as ‘hardly anyone was here'...

Day 4:
True to form, Saturday at Long Beach evidenced all 11 of our standard final-day-of-the-show activities:
Having a customer ask for a specific coin which you had on display starting on Wednesday all the way through until about 20 minutes earlier, at which you had boxed it up and delivered it to the post office for shipping home...

Because we hadn't quite had our fill of coins at the FUN show, we were delighted that Stack's had scheduled their annual Americana auction (plus some cool world coins and notes in a total of 4 robust catalogs) for Tuesday and Wednesday this week in NYC...

Day 9:
In addition to our normal commercial goals at a show, our plan for Sunday was to finish shipping out coins, tie up the last remaining loose ends and methodically complete and audit our show paperwork...

Conclusion
It's 1:13 PM on Sunday as I begin writing this final installment of the Road Report, and I'm already home in my living room, sprawled on the couch completely exhausted by the week's activities (and there were many)...

Airport Report:
Having carefully calculated Baltimore traffic conditions, I am now in the airport precisely two (2) hours before my flight and ready, willing and able to crank out the last installment of the Road Report for this show right here at my gate...

Day 7:
A quick 5 hour red-eye flight across country (which included no sleep whatsoever), and we're back in New England now and finally able to post the last (and, based on our emails, much anticipated) Road Report from the September, 2007 Long Beach Expo...

Finito:
Saturday didn't start well.
Upon checking out of my hotel, I had to admit to the incredibly attractive woman at the hotel reception desk that I had eaten a Pop-Tart from the min-bar in my room and that it should be added to the bill...

Epilogue
I'm pleased to report that I'm back in New England as I type this final chapter of our Long Beach saga, having taken the red-eye, crossed the country and slept a good, solid 14 minutes since leaving the show...

We planned to bring home a lot of loot, and that's exactly what we did.
From the 3 PM kick-off of the Ford session through some early Americana, an exuberant session of several hundred colonials, US type coins, etc...

Day 4:
After a generally tepid beginning, and then some bright moments, the show ended with a pretty quiet Saturday relegating this year's CSNC to 'Decent' (as opposed to 'Blockbuster', or 'Nuclear-White-Hot') status on the patented CRO Coin Show Rating-o-Meter...

Epiloque
We were about half packed up, organizing paperwork and just about ready to head out the door late Saturday afternoon when it walked up to the table:
A coin prominently listed on a number of our customer want lists, available right then and there and looking pretty good, raw, in an old tattered envelope...

This one was really different.
First of all, it was held at the Waldorf-Astoria on Park Avenue on the 18th floor on something called the 'Starlight Roof', a setting perhaps better suited for a fancy wedding reception in a movie starring Audrey Hepburn...

I packed up my lot-viewing psyche, my loupe and halogen lamp, my 'What would PCGS grade this thing?' prognostication hat and trucked on down to New York for the impressively diverse series of auctions at Stack's this week...

If I said to you that the New York Invitational Show would be held in Manhattan in a place called the 'Metropolitan Pavilion', what would you expect? Perhaps a grand ballroom? 30 foot ceilings, intricately carved columns and the requisite large ornate chandeliers? Not quite...

I've now received ANA show feedback from a number of collectors and dealers and I've read a blog or two on other dealer sites and articles in various chatrooms, all of which make me wonder whether we attended the same show as everybody else...

I don't want to get all emotional here, but I love the Baltimore show.
The venue is good, the the turnout is strong and the mood is excellent, people are buying and selling with gusto and there are, generally speaking, a lot of nice coins from which to choose...

What could be better than a week of intensive numismatic activity surrounded by other numismatists in an idyllic mountain setting? Well, actually, a lot of things, but for the purposes of a numismatic-related website, I'll say 'nothing'...

We like coin auctions as much as anyone, but this week at Stack's was pushing it.
We had 4 separate catalogs to be offered in three separate sessions over a three-day period which, of course, would end just in time for us to catch that flight to the Long Beach Show...

If you like personalized attention, want to focus in-depth on one fascinating and important area of US numismatics, enjoy seeing displays of some of the finest early American copper coins in existence, and think you might want to do all of this in a decadent resort atmosphere, then you most certainly would have enjoyed attending this year's EAC convention...

This week its going to be down and dirty:
If you've read our last several Road Reports, you'll know that we are not prone to hype or hyperbole, so when we say that we returned home Saturday evening from Baltimore still reeling from what was the best show we have ever had (by a significant margin), we mean it...

In what surely must be the unlikeliest of travel stories, we returned from the Long Beach Expo on Sunday flying from California directly into the blizzard here in New England and actually arrived a few minutes ahead of schedule...

We returned from Orlando late Saturday night after a nice week at the show and the related auctions. Our overall assessment is as follows:
Sales were very strong as everyone seemed to be in a buying mood...